Saturday, 15 March 2008

Grätzer again

Talking of weird wheat beers, here's some more about Grätzer. It's taken from "Die Herstellung Obergähriger Biere" by Franz Schönfeld, published in 1902, pages 61 and 62. A great book. I'm so pleased I found a copy.

I'll give you a full translation later. (Really. I promise.) This is a summary of the most interesting bits:

100% wheat malt

the malt was exposed to smoke throughout the whole malting process -pretty smoky then, I guess

the malt was highly dried, so I suppose reasonably dark

3 pounds of hops per 100 kg malt

infusion mash

yeast pitched at 15 - 18º C

OG 7º Plato, FG 3º Plato

bottle conditioned

high CO2 content

intense hop and smoked flavour

The flavour is described as both smoky and bitter. No mention of sourness. It specifically says that it keeps well and can still be bacteria free after a couple of years in the bottle.